UGCC Medical Chaplains’ “Pastoral Clinical Education” Course Completed
On November 16, 2023, the annual training course for medical chaplains of the UGCC, “Pastoral Clinical Education,” was completed. The program consisted of five ten-day modules and was attended by 17 medical chaplains from different dioceses of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. To mark the completion of the training, a Hierarchical Divine Liturgy was held at the Patriarchal House in Lviv, presided over by Bishop Ihor Vozniak. He was concelebrated by Bishops Josaphat Hovera, Petro Loza, Mykola Semenyshyn, and Andriy Khimyak.
The program began with the blessing of the Father and Head of the UGCC, His Beatitude Sviatoslav, who emphasized the importance of developing professional medical chaplaincy in Ukraine.
In his greeting letter, the Head of the Church expressed his hope that the course would not end there: “Summarizing the results of this first course and delighting in its positive results, I express the hope that it will be only the first wave of further developments and achievements in this area of our church-wide ministry for the sake of the eternal salvation of man and the glorification of the all-merciful and all-generous God the Father, who genuinely works all things in all.”
Sr. Sevastiana Karvatska, head of the UGCC Commission on Health Care Pastoral Care, thanked everyone involved in the course and congratulated the graduates.
“First of all, I thank God that in such a hard time and such extremely difficult conditions, with the prayerful and practical help of all of you present today at this celebration, we could successfully complete the work that the Lord Himself commenced for us. Apparently, I can’t help but express my gratitude to the direct participants of the course, and especially to all its teachers, who wanted to convey, having worked hard on themselves, and indeed did convey to our chaplains all that they know and possess in this scientific field, generously sharing their knowledge, skills and practical skills.”
